Stressed Out?
7 ways to manage stress as small business owners
Running a small business can be an invigorating and highly satisfying experience, but it can also be a stressful and overwhelming one. As a small business owner myself, I know how it feels to be constantly juggling multiple tasks and wearing multiple hats. It’s no wonder that business owners are considered some of the most stressed-out professionals. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at why small business owners are so vulnerable to stress, explore the main stressors that they face, and offer some practical tips to help manage stress and reduce workload. So let’s dive in!
Why are small business owners vulnerable to stress?
Small business owners have a lot on their plates. From managing finances to dealing with clients, it can become overwhelming quickly. Many small business owners work alone and therefore don’t have anyone to bounce off of or share tough days with. It can be difficult having to be IT support, a marketing executive, a brand expert, a social media manager, an administrator, a bookkeeper, as well as keeping up to date with industry news, regulations compliance, and self-assessments. As it’s stress awareness month, I caught up with 4 other business owners to help share some tips.
7 Tips to manage stress when you are doing ALL the things in your business
Katie Furneaux
Katie Furneaux Hypnotherapy
I help adults and children with life’s challenges, and more often than not, my job involves reducing anxiety and stress to allow the person to focus on the finding the solutions to their problems.
Jessica Dornieden
Pristine Podcasts
We help small business owners and industry experts to produce perfectly edited podcast episodes on time, every time.
I have been working online in marketing for about 6 years.
Renee Shupe
Geek In Your Pocket
I provide website maintenance and security services for non-techie website owners so they can focus on what they do and not think about their website. I have been working online since 2008.
Joining us as well is Jane Cooper from Smile Health Alnwick who has been in business for 19 years. Jane helps people reach their optimum function through chiropractic.
First off our advice is to DELEGATE. You don’t have to do everything yourself. Delegate tasks to employees or hire a virtual assistant to help you with regular or one-off tasks. If you can’t delegate, then try to automate tasks or eliminate anything that’s unnecessary.
We then suggest you SET BOUNDARIES. It can be easy to let work consume your life, but it’s important to set boundaries. Establish work hours and stick to them. No one should make you feel guilty for taking time off.
MAKE USE OF HANDY TOOLS AND SERVICES THAT SAVE YOU TIME. You can build your own clever toolkit which can contain tech tools, handy apps, templates and subscriptions for time-saving tools.
Katie Furneaux from Furneaux Hypnotherapy finds juggling admin and marketing tasks alongside being a home-educating mum the most stressful part of running her own business.
Katie’s tip is to ALLOCATE TIME IN YOUR BUSY SCHEDULE TO STOP AND RELAX. “You can’t keep going on that hamster wheel. We need rest to be productive, and also, organise your time. Write lists and even colour code jobs in order of priority. Be realistic.
Jessica Dornieden from Pristine Podcasts says she finds the most stressful part of being in business “dealing with myself and potential neurodiversity.”
Jessica has these words of advice, “I have learned that one of the most important things is to CREATE SPACE between me AND the perceived stressor. This gives me time to ASSESS THE SITUATION and to look at what I’m interpreting into it, and then make a decision on how to look at the situation and how to deal with it. Realistically I understood that 10% of your days might be bad days. So once every 10 days you may have a rubbish day – and that’s okay. It doesn’t mean anything about you, your skills, your business, or any other people. So creating space between me and the perceived issue just allows me to breathe, think, and re-interpret.”
I asked Renee Shupe from Geek In Your Pocket what is the most stressful part of running a business. “All the things! Working on juggling client work and my own business tasks can be overwhelming and feel like too much some days.”
Renee’s tip is to TAKE A BREAK FROM TECHNOLOGY, ALL TECHNOLOGY. “A peaceful break in nature with no notifications or sounds is a great antidote to stress.”
Jane Cooper from Smith Health Alnwick finds ‘wearing all the hats’ to be the most stressful part of running a business. Jane’s tips is to OUTSOURCE and finds that a VA is invaluable.
Airtable (referral link) – dubbed as a ‘spreadsheet on steroids’ this tool does some serious heavy lifting for you. There is so much available on the free plan but there is an upgraded version to get more features and remove the branding. Within each base you set up you can have multiple tables and different views like form view, kanban, calendar or grid view. There is also a handy app to be able to access or update data easily and quickly on the go. My favourite feature is the form. You can share a form or embed it into your website and the responses will automatically be added to your table.
Elizabeth Goddard’s Anti Planning Training (affiliate link) – if you’re the sort of person that gets analysis paralysis and you just can’t move forward because you haven’t got your plans in place, this is the training for you. I have taken this training (as well as many others of Lizzy’s) and I find her innovative approach so freeing. Lizzy has built a multi 6 figure business on this approach and there is nothing to lose by getting rebellious with the usual business rules and trying a different, much more relaxed approach!
Magic Marketing Dashboards (affiliate link) – Magic by name, magic by nature. Menekse is a marketing genius and has tied this in with the latest AI technology to create these absolutely amazing dashboards. When I say these are game changers, I really mean it! You can build the copy for a complete funnel in 20 minutes (there is a timed demo to prove it!), create a product description for your shop with specific settings for Amazon and Etsy, create a blog with a call to action, create a transcript or a sequence of emails. Menekse is adding to the suite and brand magic will be a new addition in the very near future. This is a real time saver.
Email Marketing Membership (affiliate link) – A very low cost subscription to weekly email templates that takes the pressure off of knowing what to write. Liz’s emails have seen some awesome results for her clients.
Canva Pro (affiliate link) – You may well have heard of Canva already as the easy graphic design tool that has an excellent free plan. If you upgrade to the very reasonably priced pro version there is a nifty tool called Bulk Create which is effectively a mail merge tool that inserts different data fields into your designs. There are so many uses for this.
*I only ever recommend things I have tried (and loved) myself.
Final Words of Advice
Katie says “You can’t do it all. Take the pressure off yourself, and relax. When you relax, you can find your best way forward much more easily.
Jessica has these words of advice, “In the grand scheme of things, “it” just doesn’t matter enough. So let it go”.
Renee shares this wisdom, “Remember you won’t get it all done, focus on the tasks and projects that will get you the next step further in your journey and forget all the rest. Stop thinking you “should” be doing something and do the things that feel right for you.”
It also helps to speak to other business owners and share your experiences, small business owners are more likely than other professionals to work alone which means a lack of camaraderie and colleague support. There is no HR or occupational health to help either.
Jane says “You can feel isolated, so make sure you join an online supportive business network”
By implementing these tips, you’ll be better equipped to manage stress and stay focused on growing your business. Whether you’re a product business or service-based, you’ll have people to serve, and remember you can’t pour from an empty cup.
To sum up, small business owners are no strangers to stress. Operating a business on your own means you are taking on a lot of responsibilities and wearing many hats, which can lead to feeling overwhelmed and anxious. Stress management is a work in progress, and needs to be something that’s monitored and adjusted.
By implementing the seven tips shared here alongside fellow business owners, Katie, Jessica, Renee, and Jane to manage stress you can ease the pressure and feel more in control of your day-to-day tasks. Remember to take care of yourself both physically and mentally in order to work towards a healthy balance between managing your business and managing your stress levels. With these effective stress management techniques, you will be able to enjoy success in your business while maintaining your well-being.
Ready to take your stress levels down a notch? It’s time to build your ultimate stress-relief tool stack! I can help you put together and set up a hand-picked selection of tools to make your life easier and your to-do list shorter. So why wait? Get in touch and let’s start making the tech tools work for you.
Why not also join my Facebook community of business owners who are looking to grow their audience through collaboration, it’s open to all. Click here.